In the Equipment tab of your project, you find your equipment list with your items, physical and virtual combinations on the left column. You can use the search function to quickly look for an item in your database. Every item you plan gets its own planning period and usage period.

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Planning items from your database

You can plan equipment on your project in several ways:

• Add items individually - add items individually by double-clicking on the item. This will copy one item from your database to the planning.
• Add items in quantity - by clicking on the right side (under the quantity column) a text field will open where you can enter a manual quantity. 
• Add multiple different items at once -  by clicking on the search bar above the item, you can search and select multiple items and add them all at once. After selecting the first item, you can continue your search by clicking on the magnifying glass.  
  
  
   
• Quickly plan equipment with the use of shortcuts.

A new item takes the default planning period and usage period of its subproject, or of the main project if the subproject has none. To plan an item for only part of the project, click its Planning period or Usage period cell and select another time. Read our article about setting a time per equipment item for more information.

Quickly plan items with the use of shortcuts: 

1. Select the search field with Alt + F and insert search.  
2. Press Enter to select first item row. 
3. Optional: Press Esc to deselect the current row and go back to the search bar.
4. Navigate through the items with the up and down arrow keys.
5. Select the number column by hitting the space bar or any number key. 
6. Insert the numbers of items that you would like to add. 
7. Press Enter to add the equipment item to the planning. 

Import equipment into your project Equipment Scheduling

You can also directly import equipment into projects using an Excel sheet.

In the screenshot, (1) shows More actions, and (2) shows Import.

Automatically plan equipment with physical or virtual combination and accessories

Physical and virtual combinations, as well as accessories, speed up your planning process.

Planning physical combinations: The items inside a physical combination always follow the planning period and usage period of the combination. You cannot give them a different time.

Planning virtual combinations: The content of a virtual combination (unlike the content of a physcial combination) can be changed. Click on chevron_right to open the combination. When virtual combinations are opened, the number of items in the combination can directly be changed.

If you change the content of a virtual combination inside a project, you can keep the same virtual combination price or edit its price based on the new content. To do this, select the virtual combination, click on the More actions more_vert button and choose 'Edit virtual combination price based on content'.

Planning with accessories: Accessories are equipment items automatically or optionally planned in your project when planning that equipment item. Example: when planning a moving headlight, you might want to add a rain cover if the event is outside.

Adding a temporary item or comment line

Temporary equipment item

Temporary equipment items are useful to add a custom item for a specific project. A temporary item is not in your stock and will, therefore, be directly shown as a shortage.

Learn how to add a temporary equipment item here.

Comments: With comments, you can add information to your packing slip or quotation.

To add a comment:

1. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the blue button to choose the primary action of the button.
2. Select Comment line.
3. Click on + Comment line.
4. From the drop-down menu, select the equipment group that the comment line belongs to.
5. Click on Select.

Equipment availability when planning equipment

When planning items, Rentman takes your equipment availability into account for the planning period of each item. If you plan more items than what you have in stock, the item will become red to highlight the shortage.

You can also hover over in the equipment line to quickly see the availability in the Equipment tab of your project (only available in Equipment Scheduling ProEquipment Scheduling).

In the screenshot, (1) shows the clock icon, and (2) shows the default planning period of the project.

The availability you see when you hover over the icon is based on the default planning period of the project, not on the times of individual items.

To see more information on the equipment availability, open the availability timeline.

1. Select an equipment item.
2. Click watch_laterOpen timeline.

The timeline shows the planning period of the item with stripes and its usage period in solid color.

In the screenshot, (1) shows the planning period, and (2) shows the usage period.

• Reserving equipment - When your project is Confirmed, equipment is automatically reserved for the planning period of each item. By reserving equipment, you make sure that the equipment is set aside for the project.
• Ready to pack - When your equipment planning is final, mark the subproject as ready to pack. The warehouse only sees the packing lists of subprojects that are ready to pack. Read our article about marking a subproject as ready to pack for more information.